FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – David McCarty went to work this week with the World Series champions not knowing if he’d have a job the next day.

Spring training was winding down and teams were making roster cuts. For some young players, that’s just a detour on the way to a major league career. For others, like 35-year-old backup first baseman-outfielder McCarty, it could be the end of the line.

“I don’t want to stop playing,” he said at 8:45 a.m. Sunday, “but, at the same time, you get to a point in your career where you’re not just going to bang your head against the wall.”

“He’s fighting for his baseball life,” Boston manager Terry Francona said an hour later.

McCarty put on his Red Sox uniform, went on the field to stretch and took batting practice. He was back in the clubhouse when, shortly before noon, bench coach Brad Mills told him Francona wanted to see him.

He knew he was about to find out if he’d be wearing that uniform again.

Then Mills told him, “It’s not bad.”

McCarty met with Francona and learned that he had made the club. Four position players had been cut and he wasn’t among them. The only job competition remaining was between relief pitchers Byung-Hyun Kim and Anastacio Martinez.

“This is special, especially after what we went through last year, winning it all,” McCarty said.

But then he spoke with the experience of an unfulfilled career – from third pick in the 1991 draft to being labeled a bench player early in his career to spending most of 2003 in the minors at age 33 before being claimed on waivers by the Red Sox in August.

“You never know. Trades could happen,” McCarty said. “It’s not April 3 (opening day) yet.”

Players around the league face the same rite of spring training – spend six weeks trying to impress the roster makers and hope that hard work on hot, humid fields pays off.

“We think about it so much,” Francona said, “that I think the decisions kind of become apparent as we go.”

He knows that even the final cut to the 25-man roster is important to the 25th player, even if he doesn’t play much, and the 26th, whose life is about to change with a trip to the minors or a realization that it’s time to give up the game.

“The day I forget that, I’m going home,” Francona said. “Guys have families.”

This spring, McCarty changed his swing to compensate for a back injury and struggled with his hitting, although that’s improving. But he’s been a bench player so long that he didn’t obsess over whether he’d make the team.

“When I was younger, I probably would have,” he said before learning he wasn’t cut. “I can’t worry about something that I can’t control. They don’t pay me to make the decisions. When I’m done playing, maybe, but not right now.”

Had he been cut, McCarty would have waited to see if another major league team picked him up. If none did, he would have retired rather than be away from his wife and two children by returning to the minors. With an economics degree from Stanford, he might have tried a career in money management, commercial real estate, broadcasting or maybe even in a baseball front office.

“It just depends on what they want to do with those final few pieces of the puzzle,” McCarty said before talking to Francona. “It’s just something you get used to every year.”

He never thought his baseball career would go the way it has – just 618 games with a .242 batting average.

Two years after being drafted by Minnesota, he reached the majors, hit .214 in 350 at-bats and said Sunday he wasn’t ready for the big leagues. He split the next two seasons between the Twins and the minors.

“It was frustrating because it happened so quick,” McCarty said. “I got a chance to get a fair number of at-bats my rookie year but the bad part is the very next year. There I am, 24 years old, and I get labeled a bench guy. And, unfortunately, it’s tough to shake labels in this game.”

He went on to play for San Francisco, Seattle, Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Oakland and was in the minor league systems of Cincinnati and Detroit.

With Boston last season, he played the outfield, first base as a defensive replacement, pinch hit and even pitched in three games. The left-hander allowed one earned run in 3 2-3 innings and hit .258 in 151 at-bats.

His chances to stick with Boston this year were helped by his versatility and injuries to outfielders Billy McMillon and Adam Stern, who could have competed for his roster spot. Now McCarty looks forward to April 11, Boston’s first game at Fenway Park.

“I want to be there for the home opener and get my (championship) ring and be a part of that,” he said before Francona gave him the good news. “That’ll be really special.”

AP-ES-03-28-05 1645EST